International Cooperation

International Cooperation in the Fight Against Corruption

Successful international cooperation is required to eradicate the corrosive effects of corruption. The United Nations Convention against Corruption offers a strong framework for the States to engage in international cooperation at both the informal and formal levels.

One of the central goals of the Convention is to promote, facilitate and support international cooperation in the fight against corruption. Chapter IV of the Convention contains detailed provisions on the main modalities of international cooperation in criminal matters, such as extradition, mutual legal assistance and the transfer of sentenced persons; it also covers law enforcement cooperation, joint investigations and special investigative techniques. Moreover, the Convention in its article 43 requires States Parties to consider assisting each other in investigations of an proceedings in civil and administrative matters where appropriate and consistent with their domestic legal system.

The Conference of the States Parties decided, in 2011, to convene special open-ended intergovernmental expert meetings on international cooperation. Such meetings aim to facilitate the exchange of experiences among States, to disseminate information on good practices in order to strengthen capacities at the national level and to build confidence and encourage cooperation between requesting and requested States by bringing together competent authorities, anti-corruption bodies and practitioners involved in extradition and mutual legal assistance.

UNODC Work to Facilitate International Cooperation in the Fight Against Corruption

UNODC continues to promote and facilitate international cooperation between States parties based on the Convention. It regularly conducts capacity building training sessions for practitioners and updates its state of the art technical tools and resources.

UNODC maintains an online directory of national central authorities for international cooperation, its TRACK (Tools and Resources for Anti-Corruption Knowledge) portal contains the legislation of States Parties pertinent to international cooperation and UNODC's UNCAC country profiles page contains in-depth information pertaining to the outcomes of the review process.